The Dreams Come True Trip: UK 2011: PART 2: To Scotland and Back Again
When Mike and I were planning this trip, he said, we have about 2 weeks. Let's see more of the UK than just London. I'm like, Ok. He asked me if I wanted to go to Northern Ireland because he got to go there during his 3 month fellowship in Wolverhampton. I said, what will I see there? He said, well, the pubs are good. So I'm like, pass. How about Scotland? I said, yes! Let's go to Edinburgh, because I remember Tita Riza mentioning how beautiful the city was. So I made up an itinerary, with a whole week in London and two days three nights in Edinburgh. I figured, two whole days would be jam packed to really get to know a city. And then, when I posted something about the UK trip on Facebook, Dondi Rodriguez says, if you're already in Edinburgh, you should go up and see the highlands. I'm like, you mean Edinburgh is not in the highlands? Duh. Shempre hinde. It actually never occured to me to go up to the highlands cause I imagined that would need a whole nother week, cause, Scotland is huge, and it's all mountains... I figured it would be like Banaue or Sagada, you can't just go up there, look at it, and then come back to Manila. You had to spend at least 3-5 days. But when Dondi mentioned it, a little internet research showed that there are many many bus tours that can take you up to the highlands, see Loch Ness, all the way up to Inverness and then be back in Edinburgh in time for dinner. What?! Pwede pala yun! And then I remembered how it would be great to see the highlands, and find out why many of my favorite trashy romance novels are set there. So we simply had to go! Plus it was the only place we visited that Mike hadn't been to before. We definitely had to make the most of it.
Ok, so we knew we had to go to Scotland, but Edinburgh is so far away, so we definitely had to stop by Stratford-upon-Avon on the way because yes, I am a nerd. I had my Sherlock phase, and my Tolkien phase (read the entire Silmarillion, which is, in many ways, better than Lord of the Rings, but also, makes Lord of the Rings even better that it already is), but when my mom bought this giant book The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, I also had my Shakespeare phase in which I read each and every comedy in that book, with dictionary in hand. One of the reasons I liked Grissom in CSI was cause he quoted Shakespeare all the time. So anyway, can't go to the UK and not pass by his hometown right? Lucky it's halfway to Edinburgh from London.
Day 7: We caught the 8AM coach to Stratford-upon-Avon from the Victoria Coach Station, after leaving Mike's luggage, full of used clothes and souvenirs, in the left luggage area.
At around 11:30 we found of little B&B called The Applegarth, conveniently situated right outside the S-u-A coach station. We were famished, but all of the nearby restaurants had stopped serving breakfast and refused to serve lunch till noon. Hello. So we ended up at the Best Western across the street where I had Giant Yorkshire Pudding with Sausages and Mash. YUM! One of the, if not my most favorite meal of the trip.
After that, we returned to the B&B and tried to skype with our kids in Manila but failed. The internet connection wasn't strong enough. Finally, we set out to take the Stratford Town Walk and we walked up and down the streets Shakespeare walked and saw that nearly the whole town was in homage to him! Hotels, banks, churches, even their lamp posts had little friezes or scupltures of scenes or characters from his plays. S-u-A is so idyllic, it's hard to believe it's a real town, and not a created Shakespeare theme park.
After the walk, we visited his birthplace and was able to buy souvenirs just before they closed. Everything in this litte town was closed by 5. So we had dinner at McDo and went to bed.
Day 8: No pics. This whole day was spent traveling. We took the bus from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham, where we had lunch (at a better Chinese restaurant) and shopped for pasalubong at a big mall, I can't remember the name of. I never can remember to take photos of hotel rooms and malls. Anyway, at around 4PM we hopped on a train to Edinburgh. We could have flown, it might have been cheaper, also seems shorter (5hr train ride vs 1hr plane ride) but with budget airlines' hidden tariffs and having to be at the airport early, etc, it might have ended up all the same. Thing is, I love trains! I took a train from Bonn, Germany to Paris once, and I never wanted to ride a plane or bus again. But this train ride was no where near as thrilling, because in my Europe train ride, I was in first class. And it was daytime, so I could see Germany change to Belgium change to France. The train trip to Edinburgh was just like any normal 5 hour commute, I guess. Except that my ears didn't hurt from the change in pressure, and I didn't get car sick. And I could put up my feet when the elderly couple sitting across from us at the table finally left half way to Edinburgh. So I guess it wasn't all that bad.
We arrived in Edinburgh at around 9:30, took a cab to our hotel, the Premier Inn, which I think is a brilliant budget hotel business model. They charge lower than most hotels and will provide all the basics. A room, TV, etc. BUT! If you want breakfast, pay extra. Toiletries, pay extra. Wifi, pay extra! If you're not careful, you'll end up paying just as much, or more than if you stayed at a regular hotel. Hahaha! But it was a good hotel. The first place we stayed at that had a view and breakfast buffet (+£7.99 per person per day). And the people were really nice.
Day 9: We walked up the hill behind our hotel and climbed a flight of stairs to Edinburgh Castle, soon realizing our mistake in thinking that just because the sun is up, it must be warm. No such rule in Scotland. Mike and I both under dressed, thinking the weather would be much like London, that we'd be ok as long as the sun was out. See this picture? Looks nice and sunny? Yeahh... No! It made Mike wonder why anyone would bother invading such a far off and unforgiving place. Turns out, even the monarchs who ruled Scotland didn't like to live in Edinburgh Castle. But despite the cold, it cannot be denied that Edinburgh is a beautiful city. And in the castle itself, we got to see the Honours of Scotland, which is like their Crown Jewels, but unlike the Crown Jewels of England, the Honours were not destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, but were smuggled away and hidden in secret. Later, they were locked away in the Crown Room for 111 years before being rediscovered by Sir Walter Scott. AND I saw the Stone of Scone! Which, if you are a Terry Pratchett fan, is very cool indeed.
This is the North West (I think) view of Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle. We toured the castle until we heard the One O'Clock Gun which shoots very loudly every 1PM. Not at noon because Scotts are thrifty, and said, why shoot 12 times at noon, when you can shoot only once at 1. Practical, diba? After that, we had lunch at a pub and I had a meat pie, which I loved (I must have been British in a past life, because I really do enjoy their food! I just really don't like the cold weather) and then spent the entire afternoon shopping for souvenirs on the Royal Mile. That evening, well, let's just say our energy levels did not peak at the same time, so we ended up having sandwiches in the room and watching telly instead of going out to the pubs.
Day 10: Actually, the first thing we did, even before entering Edinburgh Castle, was book us a highlands tour. This was the one tour I did not book online, because when we mentioned our trip to my Mom's business associate who had studied in Edinburgh, he said not to book online, book when you are there. And thanks to his advice, instead of paying £39 each, we only paid £36, because the regular price if you book there is £38, but thanks to the coupon we got from our hotel, we got a £2 discount. Yay! So off we went to the Highlands on day 10. We took the Timberbush Tour, with Fred, kilt-wearing, brogue-speaking, coach driver - tour guide. He was funny! And gave us useful hints like, "Goo straight fer ye tea and coffe. Cause if ye spend yer time shopping souvenirs, b'the time ye get yer tea and coffe t'will be time to goo and ye cen't have hot drinks in the bus. Ye bought yer tea and coffe just to thro it aweh an that's a west o moneh." He was adorable! He even had a soundtrack for the trip, so that while listening to gaelic music, at the crescendo of the pieace, the great glen suddenly breaks into view from among the trees. The whole bus gave him a round of applause.
After getting quite car sick from the zigzagging roads I finally saw the highlands up close and personal. No wonder it inspired so much literature. It was so big, and forbidding and lonely and romantic! Hahaha! I will, however, choose to live in my tropical island any day.
Finally, we reached Urquhart Castle, which is the ruin you see here. And it sits right on the Loch Ness, which Fred insists is deeper than the Arctic Sea. Which he knows because he's been there. By that he means he was a deep sea diver and he has dived in both Loch Ness and the Arctic Sea and Loch ness is deeper. He says.
And then we took a boat called the Jacobite Spirit on the Loch Ness! We thought it would be freezing, but it wasn't so bad. Mike stayed outside in the open deck. I stayed in the heated cabin. The whole time I was there, I was wondering why the Loch Ness seemed to resonate weirdly in my brain. Until I got home and Norman reminded me that as kids, we had these children's books about Nessie and his family of Loch Ness Monsters (The Family Ness) and that was when I remembered that I also had a Loch Ness Monster phase and dreamed of going to Loch Ness when I was a kid. Imagine that.
Day 11: The looooong coach ride back to Edinburgh left us knackered. But we had to get up early to catch our plane back to London. We checked in at the Park Avenue Belgravia again, and were given a bigger room this time! What a happy bonus, the extra space would allow us to pack properly for the trip back home. It was our last day in London, and our 6th Anniversary. Naturally we had to go to King's Cross Station to look for Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where we were approached by various rail personell saying, "Are you looking for Harry Potter?" Hahaha! It was like we were wearing "stupid tourist" signs around our necks. No, actually, they were really nice. After a couple of wrong turns, we found it. And thus the FB profile pic.
That ticked off our list, we headed for Harrods, which our research showed, is the only place in all of London that sold Harry Potter merchandise. I needed to get something for Norman, as at this point, he
was the only one we didn't have pasalubong for.
Mostly we ogled the Harry Potter collectors items and all the many many toys, rooms after rooms of so many many toys... Until Mike got hungry and we celebrated our 6 years of marriage with a giant baby back ribs dinner in the Harrod's food court. If you saw how big those ribs were, you would wonder if its mama cow were as big as a house.
After that, we headed back to the hotel, super tired. The next day, we packed, ate breakfast, and headed for the airport and journeyed home to glorious tropical weather and lovely excited children.
I've dreamed of this trip for so long, and then I lived it, and now it's over. I am so thankful and grateful and so blessed. It tells me I can dream even bigger and better and anything I wish for can come true. So my next dream is to someday be able to return to the UK, the whole family this time, so that we can share all our joy and learnings with them.
The link to the rest of the photos are again here.
Ok, so we knew we had to go to Scotland, but Edinburgh is so far away, so we definitely had to stop by Stratford-upon-Avon on the way because yes, I am a nerd. I had my Sherlock phase, and my Tolkien phase (read the entire Silmarillion, which is, in many ways, better than Lord of the Rings, but also, makes Lord of the Rings even better that it already is), but when my mom bought this giant book The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, I also had my Shakespeare phase in which I read each and every comedy in that book, with dictionary in hand. One of the reasons I liked Grissom in CSI was cause he quoted Shakespeare all the time. So anyway, can't go to the UK and not pass by his hometown right? Lucky it's halfway to Edinburgh from London.
Day 7: We caught the 8AM coach to Stratford-upon-Avon from the Victoria Coach Station, after leaving Mike's luggage, full of used clothes and souvenirs, in the left luggage area.
At around 11:30 we found of little B&B called The Applegarth, conveniently situated right outside the S-u-A coach station. We were famished, but all of the nearby restaurants had stopped serving breakfast and refused to serve lunch till noon. Hello. So we ended up at the Best Western across the street where I had Giant Yorkshire Pudding with Sausages and Mash. YUM! One of the, if not my most favorite meal of the trip.
After that, we returned to the B&B and tried to skype with our kids in Manila but failed. The internet connection wasn't strong enough. Finally, we set out to take the Stratford Town Walk and we walked up and down the streets Shakespeare walked and saw that nearly the whole town was in homage to him! Hotels, banks, churches, even their lamp posts had little friezes or scupltures of scenes or characters from his plays. S-u-A is so idyllic, it's hard to believe it's a real town, and not a created Shakespeare theme park.
After the walk, we visited his birthplace and was able to buy souvenirs just before they closed. Everything in this litte town was closed by 5. So we had dinner at McDo and went to bed.
Day 8: No pics. This whole day was spent traveling. We took the bus from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham, where we had lunch (at a better Chinese restaurant) and shopped for pasalubong at a big mall, I can't remember the name of. I never can remember to take photos of hotel rooms and malls. Anyway, at around 4PM we hopped on a train to Edinburgh. We could have flown, it might have been cheaper, also seems shorter (5hr train ride vs 1hr plane ride) but with budget airlines' hidden tariffs and having to be at the airport early, etc, it might have ended up all the same. Thing is, I love trains! I took a train from Bonn, Germany to Paris once, and I never wanted to ride a plane or bus again. But this train ride was no where near as thrilling, because in my Europe train ride, I was in first class. And it was daytime, so I could see Germany change to Belgium change to France. The train trip to Edinburgh was just like any normal 5 hour commute, I guess. Except that my ears didn't hurt from the change in pressure, and I didn't get car sick. And I could put up my feet when the elderly couple sitting across from us at the table finally left half way to Edinburgh. So I guess it wasn't all that bad.
We arrived in Edinburgh at around 9:30, took a cab to our hotel, the Premier Inn, which I think is a brilliant budget hotel business model. They charge lower than most hotels and will provide all the basics. A room, TV, etc. BUT! If you want breakfast, pay extra. Toiletries, pay extra. Wifi, pay extra! If you're not careful, you'll end up paying just as much, or more than if you stayed at a regular hotel. Hahaha! But it was a good hotel. The first place we stayed at that had a view and breakfast buffet (+£7.99 per person per day). And the people were really nice.
Day 9: We walked up the hill behind our hotel and climbed a flight of stairs to Edinburgh Castle, soon realizing our mistake in thinking that just because the sun is up, it must be warm. No such rule in Scotland. Mike and I both under dressed, thinking the weather would be much like London, that we'd be ok as long as the sun was out. See this picture? Looks nice and sunny? Yeahh... No! It made Mike wonder why anyone would bother invading such a far off and unforgiving place. Turns out, even the monarchs who ruled Scotland didn't like to live in Edinburgh Castle. But despite the cold, it cannot be denied that Edinburgh is a beautiful city. And in the castle itself, we got to see the Honours of Scotland, which is like their Crown Jewels, but unlike the Crown Jewels of England, the Honours were not destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, but were smuggled away and hidden in secret. Later, they were locked away in the Crown Room for 111 years before being rediscovered by Sir Walter Scott. AND I saw the Stone of Scone! Which, if you are a Terry Pratchett fan, is very cool indeed.
This is the North West (I think) view of Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle. We toured the castle until we heard the One O'Clock Gun which shoots very loudly every 1PM. Not at noon because Scotts are thrifty, and said, why shoot 12 times at noon, when you can shoot only once at 1. Practical, diba? After that, we had lunch at a pub and I had a meat pie, which I loved (I must have been British in a past life, because I really do enjoy their food! I just really don't like the cold weather) and then spent the entire afternoon shopping for souvenirs on the Royal Mile. That evening, well, let's just say our energy levels did not peak at the same time, so we ended up having sandwiches in the room and watching telly instead of going out to the pubs.
Day 10: Actually, the first thing we did, even before entering Edinburgh Castle, was book us a highlands tour. This was the one tour I did not book online, because when we mentioned our trip to my Mom's business associate who had studied in Edinburgh, he said not to book online, book when you are there. And thanks to his advice, instead of paying £39 each, we only paid £36, because the regular price if you book there is £38, but thanks to the coupon we got from our hotel, we got a £2 discount. Yay! So off we went to the Highlands on day 10. We took the Timberbush Tour, with Fred, kilt-wearing, brogue-speaking, coach driver - tour guide. He was funny! And gave us useful hints like, "Goo straight fer ye tea and coffe. Cause if ye spend yer time shopping souvenirs, b'the time ye get yer tea and coffe t'will be time to goo and ye cen't have hot drinks in the bus. Ye bought yer tea and coffe just to thro it aweh an that's a west o moneh." He was adorable! He even had a soundtrack for the trip, so that while listening to gaelic music, at the crescendo of the pieace, the great glen suddenly breaks into view from among the trees. The whole bus gave him a round of applause.
After getting quite car sick from the zigzagging roads I finally saw the highlands up close and personal. No wonder it inspired so much literature. It was so big, and forbidding and lonely and romantic! Hahaha! I will, however, choose to live in my tropical island any day.
Finally, we reached Urquhart Castle, which is the ruin you see here. And it sits right on the Loch Ness, which Fred insists is deeper than the Arctic Sea. Which he knows because he's been there. By that he means he was a deep sea diver and he has dived in both Loch Ness and the Arctic Sea and Loch ness is deeper. He says.
And then we took a boat called the Jacobite Spirit on the Loch Ness! We thought it would be freezing, but it wasn't so bad. Mike stayed outside in the open deck. I stayed in the heated cabin. The whole time I was there, I was wondering why the Loch Ness seemed to resonate weirdly in my brain. Until I got home and Norman reminded me that as kids, we had these children's books about Nessie and his family of Loch Ness Monsters (The Family Ness) and that was when I remembered that I also had a Loch Ness Monster phase and dreamed of going to Loch Ness when I was a kid. Imagine that.
Day 11: The looooong coach ride back to Edinburgh left us knackered. But we had to get up early to catch our plane back to London. We checked in at the Park Avenue Belgravia again, and were given a bigger room this time! What a happy bonus, the extra space would allow us to pack properly for the trip back home. It was our last day in London, and our 6th Anniversary. Naturally we had to go to King's Cross Station to look for Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where we were approached by various rail personell saying, "Are you looking for Harry Potter?" Hahaha! It was like we were wearing "stupid tourist" signs around our necks. No, actually, they were really nice. After a couple of wrong turns, we found it. And thus the FB profile pic.
That ticked off our list, we headed for Harrods, which our research showed, is the only place in all of London that sold Harry Potter merchandise. I needed to get something for Norman, as at this point, he
was the only one we didn't have pasalubong for.
Mostly we ogled the Harry Potter collectors items and all the many many toys, rooms after rooms of so many many toys... Until Mike got hungry and we celebrated our 6 years of marriage with a giant baby back ribs dinner in the Harrod's food court. If you saw how big those ribs were, you would wonder if its mama cow were as big as a house.
After that, we headed back to the hotel, super tired. The next day, we packed, ate breakfast, and headed for the airport and journeyed home to glorious tropical weather and lovely excited children.
I've dreamed of this trip for so long, and then I lived it, and now it's over. I am so thankful and grateful and so blessed. It tells me I can dream even bigger and better and anything I wish for can come true. So my next dream is to someday be able to return to the UK, the whole family this time, so that we can share all our joy and learnings with them.
The link to the rest of the photos are again here.